Solarii Brotherhood
The Solarii Brotherhood, also called the Brotherhood of Solarii, the Solariis and the Brotherhood of the Sun, is a violent and dangerous cult of human survivors on the island of Yamatai whose "religion" centered around the "Sun Queen", and they are the major antagonists of the 2013 videogame reboot Tomb Raider. Father Mathias is a willing high-ranking member of the Brotherhood as well as their charismatic leader. About the Solarii Brotherhood When Mathias arrived on Yamatai, as his fellow survivors died trying to escape the island, He knew there was something more to the storms. As he was discovering the secrets of the island, he found that he could not do it alone, he gathered a small group of loyal followers. Believing they must understand power and the need to organize. But more importantly, they cannot hesitate to kill or use violence, making it theirown way of life there. This began the Brotherhood of Solarii, by giving them structure, purpose and work. After explaining the truth of the island, he would offer the survivors a choice: death or salvation. Who opposed would be immediately be killed. Women would be sacrificed to the Stormguard or would be used in their ceremony to find the Sun Queen successor. Mathias recruited as many as possible, choosing those who are physically strong, but not too smart, so they would fall in line and take orders. Those who questions would be killed immediately. He drafted laws and a code for them to live by. They would need to prove their commitment to the queen, making them fall in line and believe. The Solarii built a city near the Queen's palace while Mathias searched for the key to unlocking her power and escaping the island. Vladimir was the leader of the mountain village group, of the Solarri brotherhood. Initiation As stated by a Solarii in one of the 'Confessions of a Solarii" entries, Mathias believed that the men would need to be strong of body, weak of will. Because of this, the new recruits who were prisoners of the cult, are thrown into a chamber in the Geothermal Caverns and were left to fend for themselves for days, sometimes weeks, without water or foods. Those who survived are welcomed with open arms. But at the same time, the recruits' humanity were destroyed, turning them into inhumane savages. The lack of food and water caused most of the recruits to resort to cannibalism, wasting no time tearing apart the new ones and eat them, as witnessed by Lara after escaping from her captors. Some recruits are also locked in cells, their sanities slowly dissolved into insanities. History It began with Lara setting out on her first expedition about the ship Endurance, with the intention of finding the lost kingdom of Yamatai. By her suggestion and against Whitman's advice, the expedition ventures into the Dragon's Triangle, east of Japan. The ship is struck by a violent storm and split in two, leaving the survivors stranded on an isolated island. Lara is separated from the others when she is captured by a strange, savage man and trapped in his cave home. She manages to escape while her captor is killed as the cave collapses around them. As Lara tries to locate the other survivors, she finds more evidence that the island is inhabited, complete with strange carvings, dead bodies, and ritual sacrifices of animals. She eventually finds her friend Sam and a man called Mathias, who claims to be one of the passengers. As Sam tells Mathias the legends of Himiko, Lara passes out; when she wakes, Mathias and Sam are nowhere in sight. When Lara finally reunites with the other survivors, Whitman decides to break off from the main party with Lara and search for Roth, who is still missing, while the rest of the group (Reyes, Jonah, Alex and Grim) set out to find Sam and Mathias. As Lara and Whitman explore, they discover that the island's inhabitants are worshipping Himiko, confirming that the island is Yamatai. Upon discovering a shrine erected in Himiko's name, they are captured by the islanders and taken to a settlement along with several other survivors from the Endurance. When the survivors attempt an escape, the captors turn on them. Lara is separated from Whitman and tries to hide, but is found by Vladimir, one of the leaders of the inhabitants. Vladimir attacks Lara, but she fights back and is forced to kill him to save her own life. She fights off the remainder of the inhabitants as she desperately works her way up the mountainside to meet up with Roth. Eventually, Lara locates an injured Roth, and using his equipment, she sets off for a communications relay at the very top of the mountain, in hopes of contacting the outside world and calling for aid. After successfully hailing a plane that was searching for the Endurance and setting a signal fire for them to follow, Lara witnesses a fierce storm materialise out of a clear sky and strike the plane down, accompanied by a mysterious voice saying "No one leaves" in Japanese. Feeling responsible for the fate of the pilots, Lara is powerless to stop the island's inhabitants from killing them. Lara is contacted by Alex and Reyes, who reveal that Sam has been kidnapped by the island's inhabitants, a violent cult known as the Solarii Brotherhood. Lara, who is closest to Sam's position, tries to rescue her, but is foiled by Father Mathias - now revealed to be the leader of the Solarii - who orders her killed. Lara is saved by the intervention of strange samurai-like creatures—referred to by the islanders as 'Oni', demons in Japanese folklore—and taken to an ancient monastery in the mountains. Escaping again, Lara stumbles onto a ritual chamber, where she learns that a "fire ritual" was used to choose the Sun Queen's successor as part of a ceremony called the "Ascension". A terrified Sam manages to contact Lara and informs her that the Solarii intend to put her through the fire ritual, which will burn her to death if it is unsuccessful. Lara makes for the Solarii fortress, meeting up with Grim, but the Solarii capture the latter and threaten to murder him unless she surrenders. Grim attempts to overpower them, but is killed in the process. Roth then arrives, and with his support, Lara is able to infiltrate the palace, where she witnesses Mathias putting Sam through the fire ritual. Lara tries to save Sam, but she is overpowered by Mathias and his men. The ritual continues, but Sam is not harmed by the flames, which are extinguished by a great gust of wind, marking her as the rightful successor to the Sun Queen's throne. Lara narrowly escapes captivity once again and doubles back to help her friends, whose attempts to reach Sam have resulted in their capture. Aided by Whitman—who has managed to negotiate some degree of freedom with the Solarii—Lara returns to the palace to rescue Sam as Roth commandeers a helicopter to get them out. Having witnessed the storm that forced the search plane to crash, Lara sends Sam to escape by land and tries to force the pilot to land as a second storm brews up, striking the helicopter and forcing them to crash. Lara is nearly killed in the accident and is revived by Roth. However, Mathias and the Solarii arrive, and Roth takes a fatal blow meant for Lara. While mourning over Roth, Lara accepts that the storms are not natural, but are somehow connected to the Sun Queen and designed to prevent anyone from leaving the island. She meets up with the other survivors, who have evaded the Solarii long enough to secure a boat for escaping the island, provided that it can be repaired. They are joined by Whitman, who claims to have escaped, though Lara begins to suspect him of working with the cultists. Lara heads for the wreck of the Endurance to meet up with Alex, who had previously gone there to salvage the tools needed to repair the boat. She finds him trapped under wreckage and, as she attempts to free him, they come under attack by the Solarii. Alex decides to trigger an explosion and sacrifice himself so that Lara can escape with the tools. Finding an account of a World War II-era Japanese military and National Socialist scientific expedition to the island that sought a way to harness the power of the storms as a weapon, Lara decides to explore an ancient tomb on the coast, where she finds the remains of a high-ranking samurai who had committed seppuku. It is revealed, in a message he left, that he was the general of the queen's Stormguard, the Oni that defend the monastery, and that the Queen's successor took her own life rather than receive the Sun Queen's power, leaving the Sun Queen trapped in her body after death, and her rage has manifested as the storms. Lara realises that the Ascension is not a ceremony to crown a new queen, but rather a ritual that transfers the original Sun Queen's soul into a new body, and that the process will destroy the host's soul. Himiko's spirit wants to escape its current body, and Mathias plans to offer Sam as a new host. Lara returns to the survivors on the beach to find that Whitman has betrayed them, abducting Sam and handing her over to Mathias. Lara, Jonah and Reyes give chase, heading up a river to the monastery, with Lara arriving just in time to see Whitman killed by the Oni. After fighting her way through the queen's guards, Lara arrives at the top of the monastery in time to see Mathias start the Ascension ritual. She works her way to Mathias, confronting Solarii and guards alike. Lara kills Mathias when she shoots him from the roof of the monastery using two pistols, before destroying Himiko's remains to save Sam. With the storms dispersed, Lara, Sam, Reyes and Jonah leave the island and are picked up by a cargo ship as Lara Croft and her friends escape the island and sail home safely. Trivia *Lara Croft would find a teddy and train belonging to children during her journey. Who with their father, were on a day out on a plane, where it got caught in Himiko's storm and crashed on the island. While exploring the geothermal caverns, you can listen to some of the prisoners' crazy rambling. One will speak of two daughters and how they were taken away then killed, therefore suggesting he was their father. 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